Kurt ‘Batman’ Pellegrino trains for UFC 111 on March 27 in Newark

UFC lightweight Kurt "Batman" Pellegrino, right, has been training hard for UFC 111 on March 27 at the Prudential Center in Newark. He is pictured here after a conditioning workout with former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres at Edge Sports Academy in Eatontown. Pellegrino and Torres trained together in New Jersey for a week last month. Torres was preparing for his March 6 fight against Joseph Benavidez, which he lost.

Enjoy the following text interviews with Point Pleasant-based UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino; his trainer partner Miguel Torres, the former WEC bantamweight champion, and conditioning coach/physical therapist Sharon Wentworth of Elite Sports Physical Therapy in Eatontown. There also are videos of his strength & conditioning and MMA training and video interviews with him, Torres and MMA coach Keith Florian, brother of training partner and fellow UFC lightweight Kenny Florian.

Pellegrino and Torres are pictured with Pellegrino's conditioning coaches, Bobby Smith and Sharon Wentworth of Elite Sports Physical Therapy in Eatontown. Smith, an Olympic hopeful in the javelin, and Wentworth, Elite's owner, have been implementing a conditioning program designed by Jonathan Chaimberg, the conditioning coach of welterweight champ George St. Pierre, the headiner of UFC 111, and Kenny Florian, Pellegrino's MMA coach and cornerman with his brother, Keith Florian.

The strength & conditioning workout you’ll see was designed by Jon Chaimberg, who also trains Florian, as well as UFC welterweight champ George St. Pierre, the headliner of UFC 111 on March 27 at Prudential Center, Newark. Pellegrino also will be on the card that night fighting Fabricio Camoes, a Brazilian jiu jitsu ace out of San Diego.

Pellegrino, left, and Torres, right, are pictured with former welterweight/junior welterweight boxing champ Miguel Cotto after a sparring session at Pellegrino MMA in Belmar. All are sponsored by Ecko Unlimited apparel.

The conditioning videos and interviews with Pellegrino and Torres were captured at Edge Sports Academy, which houses Elite Sports Physical Therapy. The interviews and grappling in the cage are from Kurt Pellegrino MMA in Belmar, whose students include Greg Soto, a new UFC fighter who’ll make his debut at UFC 111. Soto’s acceptance into the UFC came on the same day he received his brown belt in jiu jitsu from Pellegrino.

For more clips of Pellegrino’s MMA training with Keith Florian, come back to “Fighting for Life” on March 27. In the meantime, enjoy and share with friends:

So Sharon, you work with competitive athletes, including Kurt Pellegrino. Do you work with any other MMA guys?

Sharon Wentworth: I work with Kurt’s MMA team. He has guys who fight under Team Pellegrino. Greg Soto, Justin Haskins, Lester Kaslo are all guys in the MMA world. They’re professional, but even within the professional, there’s minor league, like Ring of Combat and some of the smaller promotions out of Atlantic City. He has a punch of guys who are on the verge of making it in the UFC, which is the major league. They are all from Jersey.

How long have you been working with Kurt?

Wentworth: Ever since he moved back home from Florida, which is close to two years ago. I met him through one of the guys that fights for him, Greg Soto. He’s a local. He went to Ocean Township High School. He was a really good wrestler who had a shoulder injury at a grappling tournament and ended up coming to me for rehab. I was apprenticing under Martin Rooney. He’s a good friend of mine.

It was good timing. I was just learning about the sport. My background in exercise physiology and sports medicine really lends itself toward training these athletes. They often have injuries that they are working through, so it makes sense to have someone who has information in both strength & conditioning and sports medicine. Martin Rooney also is a physical therapist-trainer.

And you’re a performance enhance specialist like he is?

Wentworth: That’s right. Physical therapy is our main background. Martin is definitely my mentor. He’s done so much in his career. He’s gotten out of physical therapy and now is just doing strength & conditioning. But my business is physical therapy and always will be. I’m very lucky to have started a business that is working in specializing in the rehabilitation of competitive athletes. It’s a very small niche practice. I love it.

This is my main business, but I brought on a second physical therapist, which allows me to do the fighters. A lot of the younger fighters don’t have a lot of income. Some of the big trainers have big price tags. So for the fighters, this is something that I just love to.

I grew up in Iowa. My dad teaches at Iowa State University. I went to every Iowa State sporting event. Wrestling has always been my favorite sport since I was little. I remember watching Nate Carr wrestle. He was one of my idols.

What brought you to Jersey?

Wentworth: Originally, I went to West Virginia University on a volleyball scholarship. From there, I went to graduate school in Philadelphia. And then I ended up doing a residence program in sports medicine in Montclair at Suburban Physical Therapy Center. The guy who ran that residency program, Jim Phillips, is now one of the head professors at Seton Hall University for their physical therapy program. In physical therapy, he’s my mentor. And in the strength & conditioning, it would be Martin Rooney. So I have had some terrific mentors along the way.

Tell me about working with Jon Chaimberg, George St. Pierre’s strength & conditioning coach, on Kurt’s strength & conditioning training?

Wentworth: He’s been very active in the design and periodization – the segments of his training. We’re really, really happy and excited to be working with him. I’m really excited to be working with him because every single person like that I get to work with, I just learn more.

How did you hook up with Jon?

Wentworth: Through Kenny Florian. Kenny’s been working with Jon on his strength & conditioning. And he’s been working with Kurt, like a coach, someone who can push him in the sport.

A lot of the athletes don’t have one coach. They have a jiu jitsu coach, a Muy Thai coach, a wrestling coach, and nobody to oversee everything. When you don’t have somebody to overseeing all that stuff, they overtrain because nobody’s really keeping them organized. And that’s one of the things that I do with Kurt: to make sure that there’s science behind the sport, especially nowadays. You really have to know when it’s too much, and you’re overtraining, or when it’s not enough, and you need to push a little bit. So I help with Kurt’s organization of that.

Jon Chaimberg coming on board really has helped with that too because he also really understand sometimes it’s more beneficial to rest. (Fighters) don’t get that. They really under value recovery.

I think when Kurt first came to me from Florida, he definitely was overtraining. He was broken down and not getting the most out of himself. So I just kind of reigned it and gave him a little bit of science. Anybody can take an athlete out there and kick their butt. But there is a science that can keep him healthy. After all the years that he’s been in MMA, he definitely needs a trainer and a conditioning coach who not only can get him in the best shape possible but keep him healthy too. I think that’s a nice little mix that I have going on.

He was injured and couldn’t fight Frankie Edgar. Had fought and beat him, Kurt might be fighting BJ Penn.

Wentworth: That’s the sport. That’s part of being an athlete. You get hurt. You have injuries. There’s no way around that. But as trainers, we should try to keep our athletes healthy as much as possible.

I think if Kurt was to tell you that he had a coach, it would be Kenny. Kenny corners him, he coaches him during his fight. He’s kind of the brains behind the outfit.

Which is fascinating because they’re both lightweights.

Wentworth: They are. But they’ll never fight each other. They’re such good friends. They just have a great relationship with each other. A lot of mutual respect. I think Kenny just had a little more organization to his camp in the past and lent that knowledge to Kurt.

When Kenny started working with Jon Chaimberg before the BJ Penn fight, Kurt wanted to have similar training. He really respects Kenny choices. So for Kenny to hook up with Jon Chaimberg, it was really a nice opportunity for Kurt to also work with him.

Jon Chaimberg is a great trainer and very accomplished. He really liked Kurt’s style. He’d seen Kurt fight. He liked his mentality. He just liked Kurt and was mutually interested in working with Kurt. But he lives in Montreal. So he can collaborate with us and help us build workouts, but he’s not there. I’m here.

But Kenny comes down. It depends on when he has fights. But Kurt just went up to Boston and spent a week up there and trained with Kenny. And Kenny will come down here. So they’ll help each other with their training camps.

The same thing with Miguel. That’s how it is with all the big UFC fighters. If you have the best guys in the UFC to train against, then who you meet in the Octagon is not even as good as the guys you’ve been training against. When Kurt goes to train with Kenny or Miguel, they’re two of the best in the world. When he goes into the Octagon, he’s already seen the best. That’s really helpful.

We’re really lucky to have those guys. And they’re lucky to have him too. It’s all just a really nice camp.

Jon’s been really great. We collaborate, coming up with these workouts.

How has it changed since it Chaimberg came on? How has Kurt been able to up his game?

Wentworth: In two ways. The workouts are physically very suited and smart. Jon also brings a scientific view to the training. So it’s a very smart workout. Interestingly, I think Jon and I fit so easily. He’ll say something, and I’ll say, ‘Ah, that’s exactly what I was thinking.’ We’re very on the same page. So it’s very scientific and really about keeping Kurt healthy, but in the best shape that he can be in.

I feel that some other trainers are just a little more generic, like, ‘Do this,’ then bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! Work as hard as you possibly can but not really catering to that specific athlete. I really think that these training sessions are very tailored just for Kurt.

How’s his back?

Wentworth: He’s always going to have aches and pains. That’s just the nature of this sport. At this point, it’s just keeping him healthy and working through it.

He has hip injuries and his back. That’s something a lot of athletes have, and you manage them. Sometimes they affect your performance and sometimes they don’t. But with him, Jon and I have come up with some specific exercises. We don’t call it rehab, we call it ‘prehab,’ like before the rehab. We’re trying to keep him healthy, targeting the muscles in him that are really tight and trying to just keep him as comfortable as possible.

The problem is that in the strength & conditioning, we can do that, but when he’s grappling or rolling jiu jitsu or whatever, you can’t control that. He has to put his body in contortions that aren’t back-friendly. So we just combat that with some real rehab-type stuff here: electric stim, ice and stretching. So far, so good. He’s been really healthy. He’s gotten through all his workouts.

On the other side of physical health is mental health: being confident, being just mentally strong. One thing that’s really helped bringing Jon Chaimberg on board is that both Kurt and I trust him. We really love his workouts. He’s had proven results. That leads to a lot of confidence, and that’s really what it’s all about.

Wentworth: The Edge has been really supportive of Kurt’s training here. We get the use of this entire facility. I never would want to own a building like this. Can you imagine all the equipment and all the expenses?

So I have a really good gig here. I just pay rent and get to use the whole place, so it’s really nice. And it’s really a nice place to work out the fighters because it’s very spacious, every piece of equipment you ever could want is here – tires, ropes, sledgehammers. We don’t use it, but there’s actually a boxing room upstairs with a heavy bag and speed bag and stuff like that. He does that on his own. That’s really just for people who into it as a workout.

Comment on how Kurt warms up with dynamic stretching and doesn’t do any static stretching until after the workout.

Wentworth: In the old days we used to static stretch and hold it for a certain period of time, but they’ve really shown that doesn’t prepare you for exercise. If you actually static stretch too long, it slows down your nervous system, and that’s not what you want to do before a workout. You do that after a workout.

So now we do dynamic warm ups, which is just moving your body through the motions that it is going to need for the workout in preparation for the work out, warming the body up, warming the core temperature up, without affecting the nervous system.

Then we’ll go into a strength segment. The strength segment we call ‘prehab’ and strength. We choose exercises for Kurt specifically to what he needs to stay healthy. We’ll choose certain exercises to target weak muscles to keep him healthy, at the same time, strengthening him.

And then we end with a conditioning segment, which is really all cardio. We have a circuit that we put him through that takes about five minutes similar to a five-minute round. And then he gets a minute break. We put him through three rounds of that. It’s similar to the timing of a three-round fight.

How far in advance do you plan the workouts?

Wentworth: We record how he’s doing, how he’s feeling, what’s going on. And then we discuss what the next workout should be. So we really don’t plant the workouts weeks ahead. We’re going by how he’s feeling.

Some of the trainers I’ve experienced, they do the same thing over and over, which not only isn’t effective physiologically but is boring mentally.

Miguel Torres, how do you guys help each other to train?

Miguel Torres: When you train in your own gym, you train the same way all the time. They tend to know what you’re good and at what you’re not good at and they tend to stay away from your strengths, and it’s hard to develop your skills because they’re either scared of certain areas or they want to play safe in other areas. There’s no real growth there.

So when me and Kurt hook up, we know what we’re good at, but we’re both competitive, so when we train against each other, we both give each other the look that we need. When me and Kurt box or wrestle or grapple, we don’t stay away from each other’s strengths. We go into each other’s strengths. I really do try to beat him at what he’s good at, and he does the same to me. And that makes us better.

How did you guys hook up together?

Torres: It was about two years ago. We have the same manager. I got brought to a UFC event in Colorado. It was when he fought Nate Diaz. He was beatin’ the piss out of Nate Diaz. I was very impressed. He picked up Nate in the third round and slammed him on his back, but he put himself in the triangle choke, and he lost. Kurt was really sad. And he was pissed. He didn’t want to fight no more. He was really upset because he beat the crap out this guy in the whole fight, and he lost by accident. He put himself in the choke.

When a fighter loses a fight, everyone tries to console him and everyone tries to come to him and say, ‘Man, you know, you did a good job.’ Everybody was trying to console him. I said, ‘I’m not going to try to console you. You made a mistake and got caught. But I was very impressed in what I’d seen and what you were doing. I would love to work with you one day.’ He didn’t think I was serious. He didn’t know why I wanted to do that. But my manager brought him down.

The first day he came to my gym, we sparred and created an instant friendship right there. And help each other out every time.

What do you see in his camp and your camp, where you guys have upped your game?

Torres: I never did strength & conditioning. I’m not a normal athlete. My cardio and conditioning is just there doing everything. I never realized the benefits of this stuff until I lost my last fight, and I looked at what my opponent was doing in training. He was doing strength & conditioning.

So Kurt, how do you like those Jon Chaimberg circuits?

Kurt Pellegrino: It’s all lungs.

I think it may be harder than being in the Octagon.

Pellegrino: It’s way harder. My Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – when I do my cardio – is the hardest thing I do all week. I can take a break in the cage. I couldn’t take a break here at all. It’s constantly as hard as I can go.

Did I cheat? The first one I got in 4-something. The last one I got in 4:23, so I got faster. You can’t cheat. If you cheat, the time is longer. You have to go as fast and as hard as you can to get it over with. As that goes on, they put two more exercises in. My first one I had eight (exercises). Now I’m up to 12 or 15. I did eight in 5:40. Now I’m doing 12 in 4:23. I’m going to keep at it. I always look to see if Chaimberg added another in, the bastard.

How do you like him?

Pellegrino: Oh, he’s the man. I hate him actually, that’s why I love him. I can only hope the guy I’m fightin’ is workin’ this hard because if he’s not, I’m going to kill him.

Comment on how Kenny Florian hooked you up with Jon and how that upped your game.

Pellegrino: Kenny is like a scientist in the sport. How I used to train is how an old wrestler would train: wrestling practice, drilling, boxing. And then after boxing I would do the Aerodyne (bike). And then the next day, I’d be (spent), but then I would do it again and again, until I ran myself into the ground. If I have a hard workout now … man, I’ll go over technique tonight. Or I’ll just go in there and jump rope and shadow box. Something light and quick and snappy, compared to a workout like (the Chaimberg circuits). And then six hours later, I would work again and kill myself, but then I won’t be able to do my other workout in the morning.

Every time I workout, I have to recover. And I have to get this workout, the same as I did today, so tonight, normally I would spar and wrestle tonight. But if I don’t feel like wrestling, I’ll do the sparring and jiu jitsu. I’ll do one hard part, then an easy part.

You run your own school teaching MMA, jiu jitsu and wrestling. But who teaches you jiu jitsu, boxing and Muay Thai?

Pellegrino: Well, I have Kenny and Keith Florian to help me. And like Miguel is down right now. I coached him in wrestling and tonight, it will be vice versa because I haven’t rolled jiu jitsu with him yet. We’re going to do at least 20 minutes of straight jiu jitsu, and if I’m doing something wrong, he’ll tell me, and if he’s doing something wrong, I’ll tell him. But we’re going to go after each other. And I like doing kickboxing with him because he’s too much for me.

I know how to wrestle and I know how to do jiu jitsu. My whole thing is cardio. To beat me, you have to be in the best cardio shape of your life. I don’t train for you. You train for me. I’m going to train wrestling and boxing and jiu jitsu, like I always do. If you want to beat me, you better be in the best cardio shape of your life. If you’re a better wrestler than me, I don’t wrestle more. I don’t ever train to beat you. You train to beat me. That’s my whole thing. To beat me, you have to beat me on cardio. If you don’t have it, you’re losing.

I’m already a great wrestler. I’m already great at jiu jitsu. I always can improve with boxing, and I can always get my other qualities better as well. But what’s the main thing that wins every fight. For those three rounds, it’s who has the best cardio. To beat me, you better do your cardio. Don’t wrestle. You’re never going to be a better wrestler than me.

Thiago Tavares is the best cardio guy in the weight class at 155. I know I was a better wrestler. I thought I was a better striker than he was. I didn’t know who was better at jiu jitsu. So how did I beat him? I did (cardio). I dedicated my life like a lunatic. I didn’t even box because this killed me so much. I’d go to the school at night, and I was dead. Now I’m used to this workout, I can train 100 percent tonight. So now I’m getting better and better and better for every fight, and it shows, because I’m not sore no more.

Thiago Tavares was the biggest test of my life. I fought Josh Neer, and I wasn’t myself. I burned myself out — how much sparring I did – so I just wrestled him. I had so much cardio that I wasn’t tired. But I couldn’t stand up with Josh no more because I had burned myself out from too much sparrin’. That’s why you saw me take him down and stay on top of him in August.

This fight here I’m not sparring. I’m a cardio machine, and I spar once or twice a week just for timing. If I need to do more, I will, but right now, everything is feeling great. I’ll a wrestling match, then I’ll do a Aerodyne tabata: 20 seconds on at 90 rpms, 10 off. It’s insane. Then I go and wrestle again. I do that five times. I’m a cardio guy now.

You cornered fellow Jersey Shore-based based UFC fighter Nick Catone at his last fight. How did you like working in his corner? If your schedule allows, would you do that again?

Pellegrino: Yeah. Nick and me were almost like best friends when we were younger. I used to hang out with him and sleep over his house and vice versa. He was a sophomore when I was a senior. We wrestled at the Shore Thing Wrestling Club. I knew Nick when he was 103 pounds for Brick Memorial. I knew Nick since he was twerp. Now he’s a monster.

I started fighting here in Jersey. Frankie Edgar, the Miller Brothers. Anyone who fights from New Jersey, it’s because of me. I am the oldest fighter in the state of New Jersey. I paved the way. And thank God I did. Thank God I wasn’t smart in high school and went right into it because look at Frankie fighting for the belt. Look at Jim Miller. Look at Dan Miller. All these people said, ‘I could do what Kurt’s doin’.’ I did it. And now I’m so happy. When I retire, I can say, ‘I started these guys.’

They all came to my school. I’m so happy for them. I hope they all become the champion, regardless if I do.

For Nick, I was in New Jersey when he was beating everybody up like I did when I was here. And when I moved home, I gave him advice, and he took it, and he didn’t take it. And then after two losses, Nick came to me and said, ‘You know, we were once good friends. Help me, and I’ll help you when you need my help.’ Nick is so ginormous, he’s huge. But what I offer Nick is that my boxing is real good. I never show it that much, only a couple of fights. But with Nick, my knowledge of fighting is almost like I’m Kenny and Keith (Florian). I can tell him things. He won that fight not because he was a better fighter or wrestler or (had) better jiu jitsu, not because I was in his corner but because of what we did in this cage, how I told him how to fight the guy. The confidence that I gave him. He won that fight. What was one of my biggest accomplishments in fighting.

Nick comes here every Monday and Wednesday. I’m his MMA coach. If he has to step into an Octagon and punch and kick someone, he’s coming here. I want to be there for him. I’m so happy he won his last fight. I feel like I won.

I never asked for a dollar or for him to tell me thank you, but he said, ‘I won because of what we did.’ I felt phenomenal. I was on Cloud 9. I’m taking that into this fight.

And I didn’t have to do much. He’s an awesome athlete. I just turned the dial up a little bit.

Pellegrino prepares one of his students for the cage.

And now you have Greg Soto, your first student in the UFC. How do you feel about that?

Pellegrino: From white belt to brown belt, now UFC fighter. Unreal. I don’t even know how to describe it. Having him fighting on the same card as me in the UFC, being my student, all in New Jersey, I can’t wait.

He replaced a fighter on that card. How did that happen? How did he get into the UFC?

Pellegrino: Being at this camp, training with me. If you want to fight in the UFC, train here. They called. I have 10 fights in the UFC. I work with the Florians.

This is a jiu jitsu school, but 8 o’clock at night, we have Fight Team practice. So they called, and I said, ‘He’s ready. Let’s rock ‘n’ roll.’

Team Pellegrino at Kurt Pellegrino MMA in Belmar.

Anything else you want to get off your chest?

Pellegrino: I just want to thank Ecko, my sponsor. And my wife and daughter. And my school in Belmar, N.J.: 1716 Main St.

Anyone who has a dream to do something great, come to this school, and I’ll help you 100 percent. When I’m not fighting, I’ll walk you to every fight, I’ll walk you to every grappling match. I’ll teach a white belt. I’ll roll with white belts. I’ll help a girl hold mitts. I’ll do whatever I can. I want to see people accomplish what I’ve accomplished in my life because I’ve accomplished everything that there could be in this sport besides the championship belt. I’ve done everything. Every world competition, I’ve done it or won it. So if I can help someone achieve their dream or if you’re out of town and you’re just looking train, come here. I’ll train with you one-on-one. No questions asked.

About Bob Makin

Bob Makin is a multimedia watchdog reporter for the Home News Tribune, Courier News and MyCentralJersey.com. He has been with Gannett 20 years and a journalist for 34. He also is a former fitness coach specializing in sports-specific training and methods to fight diabetes and heal from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, two illnesses Makin has been able to control through exercise and nutrition. A former competitive boxer and wrestler, Makin relies heavily on mixed martial arts as a form of exercise.

Hi – really good web site you have put up. I had fun reading this posting. I wanted to reply a remark to let you know that the look and feel of this web site is very aesthetically delightful. I used to be a graphic designer, now I am a simple employee for a big corporation. I have always enjoyed playing with computing machines and am attempting to educate myself in website building in my free time (which there is never enough of lol).

I am pleased to find so numerous advantageous details at this point, we need develop further more strategies regarding this.

About this Blog

No other exercise works on strength, power, speed, stamina, endurance, agility, balance, flexibility, mind and spirit all at the same time like mixed martial arts. Mixed martial arts also is the country’s fastest-growing sport and boasts the most pay-per-view sales.

About the Author

Bob MakinBob Makin is a multimedia watchdog reporter for the Home News Tribune, Courier News and MyCentralJersey.com. He has been with Gannett 20 years and a journalist for 34. He also is a former fitness coach specializing in sports-specific training and methods to fight diabetes and heal from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, two illnesses Makin has been able to control through exercise and nutrition. A former competitive boxer and wrestler, Makin relies heavily on mixed martial arts as a form of exercise.E-mail Bob

Larry VollmerLarry Vollmer Jr. is a Web programmer for LoHud.com, the Web site of The Journal News. He spends his days staring at thousands of lines of code and his nights throwing highkicks and hitting the mat with submission grappling specialists. After work and training, Larry gets the latest news on the world of mixed martial arts from the fighters themselves while watching and rewatching matches on his DVR.E-mail Larry